Adobe has launched its Creative Cloud service, a cloud-based subscription service that enables subscribers to access the Adobe creative tools, including the new Adobe CS6 apps and tools.

Adobe Systems has launched Adobe Creative Cloud, a new way of providing tools and services for creative professionals.

The Adobe Creative Cloud is a subscription-based offering that is a hub for making, sharing and delivering creative work. The technology is focused on the new release of Adobe Creative Suite 6 software, which features new design, Web, video and digital-imaging tools. Adobe first announced its Creative Cloud in October 2011 at its MAX conference in Los Angeles.

An Adobe Creative Cloud membership provides users with access to download and install every new Adobe CS6 application and two new HTML5 products, Adobe Muse and Adobe Edge preview. The Adobe Creative Cloud also integrates Adobe's creative tablet applications, such as Photoshop Touch, synchronizing and storing files in the cloud for sharing and access on any device.

Subscribers also will be able to easily deliver mobile apps to iOS and Android marketplaces and publish, manage and host Websites. In addition, Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers will have access to application upgrades, including new CS point-product features, before they are launched as part of major CS updates, as well as inventive new products and services as they emerge.

Adobe Creative Cloud membership is $49.99 per month, with an annual contract. And Adobe is offering a special introductory rate of $29.99 per month for CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 individual customers.

"The urge to be creative is universal, and harnessing the creative spark--in everyone from school children to creative pros--has never been more important," Shantanu Narayen, Adobe's president and CEO, said in a statement. "Wherever and whenever inspiration strikes, Adobe will be there to help capture, refine and publish your ideas."

"What Adobe is doing with this release is a powerful case study in how to take a traditional rich desktop suite of software and build added value in cloud services," said Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC. "Teams of designers and developers will be able to install and manage their software in the cloud as well as store their assets and publish them in the cloud, all while collaborating on their work. These are the kinds of services that will make a subscription model compelling. The other noticeable change in this release is the degree to which Adobe is embracing HTML5. A variety of tools incorporate and leverage HTML5 in CS6, showing the broad scope of the transition Adobe is making."